Victoriano Ramirez

Victoriano "el Catorce" Ramirez (1892-17 March 1929) was a leader of the Mexican Cristeros during the Cristero War of the 1920s.

Biography
Victoriano Ramirez was born in San Miguel El Alto, Jalisco, Mexico in 1892, and he worked as a ranch hand before being imprisoned for murder. After his escape, 14 men were sent to track him down, but he ambushed and killed all of them and told the Mayor of San Miguel "not to send so few people" next time; he was nicknamed "El Catorce" and became a folk hero. He was among the first to join the Cristeros during their rebellion against President Plutarco Elias Calles in the 1920s, and he was known to be a womanizer, a guerrilla hero, and an arrogant and brutish general. On 15 March 1927, he won the Cristeros' largest victory of the war, but he became disillusioned from the leadership due to their undermining of his power by instituting a central command system headed by Enrique Gorostieta. Eventually, the Cristero command banned Ramirez from having any armed men under his command, but his popularity among the people of San Miguel led to several men volunteering to serve as his bodyguards. As a result, Father Aristeo Pedroza had Ramirez sentenced to death by firing squad. Ramirez barricaded his jail cell, but the soldiers used a battering ram to open it. Ramirez then jumped at one of the soldiers in an attempt to snatch his rifle and resist them, but they shot him dead. His death severely undermined the Cristero cause.